Fear is everywhere, but because it is something we create, we can also choose to never give it life, too. There are people who I know that don’t just live with fear, it has manifested itself to be the only way they can live life. Once fear has a hold of you, it is very difficult to shake it. It does not matter what fear it is or how silly it may seem. Sometimes, it is the fear of failure that prevents us from trying anything new. Last time I checked, most people have to do something for a very long, over many hours, before they become really good at it. Not that I am going to rush out and spend hours in a nail salon or shopping mall, but I am not so afraid of those things like I once was. Maybe your fear is something more related to the unknown. None of us have a guide-book that will give directions on how to get us from one day to the next. People that are afraid of the unknown look at it as a negative, instead of a positive. They fear having no control. Been there. Maybe your fear is if you do something great, then people will expect it all the time from you. And you wouldn’t want to disappoint them, would you? Fear of your potential not yet seized is holding you back. Fear is connected to expectations and once we let those slip by the wayside, we can truly appreciate what we have before us and begin to understand that fear does not need to exist in our lives. It is fabricated to hold us back and is the opposite of usually something we like. We are not fearful of something that brings us joy. We are exuberant and blissful. Fear cannot live among those feelings of content and happiness. Fear becomes suffocated and lifeless if we choose to not feed it with constant creations in our mind that only grow bigger because of not having all the answers. Can we totally live without fear? Probably not. It will show its ugly self from time to time and will remind us if e are going to let the fear be bigger than we are. We need to look at fear as an emotion that has no physical attributes and serves no real good for our living. There is a difference between it keeping you in check once in a while versus living your life in fear of everything life has to offer. The lies we tell ourselves and the expectations we have developed into truths are nothing but figments of our imagination. We have made the “ant hill into a mountain” and then become so terrified that we never feel like we can get over it. We either run from it and never look back or we stand still, trying to ignore it. Does the fear go away with either or those two options? No, it doesn’t. You are just avoiding it. But what happens when you tackle that fear? When you decide that as much as it makes you physically ill, makes you sweat in the winter, or puts you in the “fight or flight” mode, that you say, “NO!” I am NOT going to be fearful anymore. I am going to do it. What fears do you have and how do they affect your life? You choose. But I know that when you decide to live fearlessly, that you become another person who never lets fear dictate her presence in your life again. You kiss fear goodbye and tell it, “Yes, I can” by Jason Barry
Michelle A. Homme 2013 ©
